


Told You I'd Be Back

by carmarie



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-05-10 10:49:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5582824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carmarie/pseuds/carmarie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn wakes up at the Resistance base on D'Qar, and Poe helps him figure out what's going on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Told You I'd Be Back

The first thing that came back to him was awareness of his breath. Breath. He was still breathing.

He, FN-2187— no, Finn— was alive.

The breaths came slow, soft, and deep, and he grabbed one, held it in his chest for a moment, and then let it out slowly through his nose.

Then sound returned to him. All he could hear was a quiet but persistent beeping. He took another breath, a deep one, and the beeps sped up, just a little bit.

He felt a draft at his toes, and, wiggling them, he realized they were bare. Where were his boots?

Finn’s eyes drifted open. He lifted his head, looked down, saw white…

Snow! Starkiller Base! The beeping accelerated. He’d been fighting Kylo Ren, and Rey had-

“Easy, there,” said a familiar voice, and a hand pressed lightly on his chest. Finn’s head sank back onto a… pillow?

His eyes focused, and he found himself looking up at wood rafters, not at snow-covered tree branches.

“What?” he managed weakly.

“You’re safe, Finn. You’re at the Resistance base on D’Qar.”

Finn kept his eyes fixed on the ceiling. He hardly dared to look away, fearing that if he did, his surroundings would revert back to those snowy woods where he fought for his life against a Sith lord- and Rey’s.

“Where is she?”

“Who?”

“Rey.”

“She’s the one who brought you back here. She’s fine.”

Finn’s breath left his lips in a long sigh of relief. He turned his head to the left to see who he’d been speaking to.

“Poe!”

“How are you feeling?”

Finn twisted to prop himself up on one elbow. Poe lurched forward to grab him, but stopped, hands poised in the air when he saw that Finn hadn’t struggled.

Shaking his head in awe, Poe clapped a hand gently to Finn’s shoulder. Finn’s eyes followed the pilot’s callused hand as it ran down his sleeve. Oh. A hospital gown was the white he’d seen. He really was on D’Qar, safe, away from the Sith and the snow.

“Wow, they really did a good job on you,” said Poe.

Finn sighed. “I- what happened?”

“Well, all I know is that Rey and Chewbacca brought you back here with a huge gash running down your back. They said you had a severed spine. They wouldn’t let me visit you for a week-”

“A week?” Finn sank back against the pillows. “How long was I out?”

Poe shrugged. “Ah, a week and a half. You didn’t miss anything… uh, well, nothing _too_ interesting at least.”

“Oh,” said Finn weakly. His mouth felt very dry.

“Starkiller Base got destroyed,” said Poe. “Thanks to you guys. And Red and Blue Squad, of course.”

“It worked? Amazing.”

“I know, right?” said Poe, gripping Finn’s elbow. “I just… I’m so glad you’re okay, Finn. I thought you were a goner.”

“Me too,” Finn admitted.

“You stood up to a Sith with a lightsaber! I can’t believe you held up as long as you did!”

A wry smirk tugged at the corner of Finn’s lips. “Back at the academy they gave us hand-to-hand combat training. We were trained to fight lightsaber users.”

“Yeah, I remember that one bloke you took on back on Takodana.”

“I would’ve been toast if you hadn’t shown up when you did.”

“Just repaying a favor, buddy.”

“That’s it? We’re even now?” Finn joked.

Poe laughed. “We’ll see. Man, I’m just so glad to see that you’re okay. I guess I should flag down a medical droid to check you out now that you’re awake.”

“Are you… gonna leave?” Finn asked, starting to sit up as Poe stood. His back ached, and the skin still felt raw and dry beneath the white gown. Poe bent to press him lightly back down again.

“You need to rest.” His palm against Finn’s chest was warm and soft for such rough-looking hands. Finn obeyed. “They might kick me out,” said Poe. “But if they do, I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Poe turned to leave. “Wait,” said Finn. “Where’s Rey?”

Without turning around, Poe answered. “She left soon after you got back. I never got to meet her. I heard someone say she’s coming back, though.”

Finn didn’t say anything. Poe turned around with a smile. “Don’t worry. She took the Falcon. I don’t think she’ll be gone for long.”

Moments later, medical droids bustled back in. These were much kinder-looking than the clinical, skeletal ones that were used by the First Order.

 _Severed spine,_ they said to him. _Advanced new bio-cybernetics, artificial vertebrae, repaired nerves, fully functioning within a month, physical therapy-_

Their words passed through Finn like a shuttle through thick clouds, and he immediately felt lost, adrift in a strange new world, one that he had no clue how to navigate. Now there was no First Order, no Zeroes, no Nines, no Poe, no Rey, no Chewbacca, no Phasma, no Slip, no Han Solo…

He was in the Resistance now. They’d taken care of him, taken him in, not caring that he’d been one of the stormtroopers they fought so vehemently against.

In a daze, he obeyed as the droids told him to lift or move various parts of his body. They shined lights in his face, instructed him to sit up and back down, and then they left and Finn was alone. He felt alone, more alone than he’d ever felt in his life.

And then he felt a hand wrap around his.

Finn looked to his left and everything pieced back together again. It was Poe Dameron, grinning from ear to ear.

“Told you I’d be back.”


End file.
